


After Life

by namtaenabi



Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Character Death, Fluff, Ghosts, Historical References, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 01:33:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8308579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/namtaenabi/pseuds/namtaenabi
Summary: !! First of all, I would just like to point out that even if this has the "character death" warning, fear not. It is nothing graphic, since this is focused on the members being ghosts. Meaning this is pretty much all slight fluff and nothing really sad or bad. So I hope that for once you are not put off by this and take your time to read this story. !!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #: 148  
> Pairing: Jinwoo/Seungyoon  
> Prompt: AU. WINNER AS GHOSTS.  
> Rating: PG  
> Please include: Minho trying to eat solid food.
> 
> This story is meant to be longer, but because I have gotten sick I haven't had the time to truly finish it. Meaning I will try to get to it eventually. Still, I hope you enjoy what little I have so far.

**October 14th, 2014**

 

”Don’t you miss the taste of food?”

 

Jinwoo looks down at Minho where he is practically plastered against the window to the candy store. The whole display is in black and orange, lots of pumpkins, spiders and strange looking, flying sheets that are supposed to be ghosts, all set for Halloween. One step closer and Minho will no doubt find himself inside the candy store, hovering helplessly over the candy he can no longer eat.

 

There comes no answer from Taehyun as he floats lazily in the air behind a man reading some art magazine on a bench by the store. Seunghoon is too busy zooming through people as they rush to the subway, howling in laughter at the ones that shudder and pull their coats closer around themselves at the sudden chill. Only Seungyoon looks away from the window to the music shop next door, smiling at Minho before he meets Jinwoo’s eyes and the two of them quickly turns away to hide a chuckle.

 

Minho is the most recent addition to their little group. Something about a sinking ferry, Jinwoo isn’t entirely sure. There have been too many tragedies in his life (and after it) for him to worry too much about the tolls of the living. Also, asking about how someone died is rude for the first twenty years or so of someone’s afterlife. Seungyoon taught him that way back when they just met and Jinwoo still had no idea how the etiquette of the afterlife worked. Now he knew, and so he couldn’t make himself ask. Maybe Taehyun will blurt out the words eventually, or maybe Seunghoon? The latter died protesting in Gwangju and never really felt anything but affinity towards rules and ‘decisions from the higher ups’.

 

“Aaahh!”

 

Four faces turn towards the candy shop at the sound of Minho’s voice, and there is a sigh in the air, with an undertone of chuckles from Seunghoon, as they notice that their youngest addition is now sitting halfway inside one of the giant displays of candy, scratching his head and starting fascinated at the way his body just disappears in the sweets.

 

“Do you think he’ll learn?” Jinwoo asks quietly as he tilts his head towards Seungyoon and looks at him. The look is returned, and Seungyoon smiles in that way Jinwoo really likes. “You learned, didn’t you?” sounds the reply, and they both chuckle again. Yeah, Jinwoo did learn, but it surely did take him a long time to figure everything out. If it hadn't been for Seungyoon, he would probably still be lost.

 

 

 

 

**1950, July 25 th. **

 

Jinwoo jumped up as soon as he realized that the sound of airplanes wasn’t just passing them, but was coming closer. Hours of walking without food and water had tired him out, even more so because of his bad limp, and he had been thankful for the short rest the American soldiers had allowed the refugees to get. If only they made it through today, he had thought, they would manage to get to safety and maybe he could even find his mother again. Only he never left that railroad track. The sound of explosions filled the air, and then everything went black.

 

When he finally opened his eyes, Jinwoo felt…nothing? That was odd. No pain, no fear, just a strange restlessness. It was as if he should be asleep but just couldn’t. Rubbing his eyes, he sat up, feeling strangely light now, and looked around.

 

The destruction, the horror that met him had him close his eyes at once. What was this? What was going on?! Jinwoo pushed himself up to his feet now, turning around to look and then stopped dead at what he saw behind him. There, on the ground, covered in both blood and dirt was… him! Kim Jinwoo, with eyes staring blankly out at nothing. His head was twisted in a strange angle and the sight was too intense for Jinwoo to even want to look at it. “This isn’t happening, this isn’t happening, this isn’t happening!” he muttered to himself, rubbing the side of his face the exact same spot where the other Jinwoo had a big wound.

 

What was going on? One moment there was panic, and now there was just a strange silence, a ringing in his ears and a few distant voices. Voices? He perks up, stumbles forward in direction of voices and sees two Western-looking soldiers with rifles over their shoulders and a grim expression on their face. “Help! You have to help me!” Jinwoo yells as he stumbles towards them, reaching out with a desperate need for help and explanation. Only they ignore him, keep talking in muttered voices and even look right through him as if he’s not even there. What is wrong with them?! Why wouldn’t they listen to him? Why wouldn’t they--

 

Jinwoo stood frozen. One of the soldiers had just walked _straight through him_ , and his only reaction was a shudder? What?! “You… excuse me, you…” he stuttered, trying to make sense of what just happened. People didn’t walk through you. That did not happen. Only air, only spirits, only-- spirits? Wait.

 

Turning around, Jinwoo walked back after the soldiers and with some hesitation held out his arm. He squinted, not sure he wanted to see what happened when he waved his hand around in direction of one soldiers back. He halfway expected to end up slapping the guy, but to his surprise his arm just waved around and went straight through.

 

“You’ll get used to it eventually.”

 

The sudden voice had Jinwoo spin around again, trying to find the source of the sound. Everywhere else seemed quiet and empty, so where?

 

“Up here. It’s okay, don’t be scared. Even if… I guess that’s a bit much to say to someone who just died.”

 

It took a while for Jinwoo to process the words. It sounds strange, and he has a bit of a problem believing they are real. Death is supposed to send you to a higher place, and it shouldn’t leave you stranded. Too many thoughts jumble up in his head and he has to sit down to manage to take it all in. It just makes no sense for him to die! He was escaping the North Korean troops, he was managing despite of his injury, he was doing just fine! He was only 25, not even married! Not even… nothing. He was nothing at all.

 

And who was this person to say he was dead? Wrinkling his brows, Jinwoo looked back up at the person that had spoken, eyeing with suspicion the other man’s old-fashioned clothes. How could he just float around looking like that? That’s when it hit him that the other was floating in _thin_ air, and it made him feel like passing out. Of course, that didn’t quite work since he was already dead and all.

 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just.. you’re the first I’ve seen change so fast.”

 

The one speaking was pretty tall, lanky and with big, plump lips that kind of filled Jinwoo with a want to reach out and pinch them. He also had a bright, kind-looking face that made him want to listen and trust him. If only he hadn’t been floating around like that, like some water ghost or evil spirit.

 

“Wh-what are you talking about? Change? And who is dead?! I was alive just now, I was _alive_!” Maybe if he says it enough times, he will believe it too? Accepting death seems so final, so hopeless. Even if everything points towards it, like the doppelganger of himself on the ground there, and the way he had reached straight through that soldier before. Jinwoo swallows and shakes his head. No. There is just no way, it is too surreal.

 

“Look, I hate to break it to you, but… you don’t expect to be alive after that kind of wound?” The stranger comes closer faster than he should have, and Jinwoo takes a step backwards, unable to turn to look at what the other is hinting at. “But I was alive just now! I was just fine before!” A sob escaped his lips, and soon tears were pouring out of Jinwoo’s eyes. At least he thought he cried, but when he reached up to brush them away there was nothing there. No warmth, no wetness. This had him howl even louder, and he crouched down to hide his face in his hands.

 

So he really has died then? He died and wasn’t even able to disappear from the world. Was he doomed to wander here forever? All alone and unnoticed? Was that what was to become of him?!

 

“Hey, look, it’s okay! Oh… don’t cry? It’s really not that bad!”

 

“Not that bad?” Jinwoo sobs as he glares up at the stranger with eyes brimming with tears. “I’m _dead_!”

 

“But you’re still here.”

 

“Yeah! I’m still here, I cannot even have my soul rest in peace! I’m a failure of a human being! I’m… What am I going to do?” This was really just too much for him. Could he go lie down into himself maybe? Would that let him disappear and rest eternally?

 

“You need to look at it in a different way! Now… now you can see all you want to see! You can go wherever you want, and you don’t have to every worry about getting hurt, being hungry or being tired ever again. Isn’t that pretty nice?”

 

It did sound quite nice. Up until now Jinwoo had only ever seen the island he had been born at and the small village he went to with to stay with his grandparents after he got his leg injury. They had never had a lot of money, he had never really been full after a meal, and it had always been painful to walk. If he was to believe what this other person said, then… it didn’t seem all that bad?

 

“You don’t get hungry at all?” Jinwoo sniffles and he dares to look up again at the stranger. Being dead still feels awful, it has him want to hide somewhere and cry, but at least if he is free of all the things that made his life miserable before, it cannot be all that bad.

 

“Not a bit! You do miss it sometimes, but I mean… for some it’s better to not be able to feel hungry.”

 

The other seemed to have a point. For Jinwoo, hunger had been a given ever since the Korean War started and food had started to get really scarce. “I can understand that…” Jinwoo mumbles and shrugs his shoulders. He can’t deny that thanks to his new friend (or whatever he was) this whole waking up to the after life hadn’t been quite as scary as it could have been. Imagine having to figure out all of this on your own! The thought made him frown and he shook his head. Nope, he would not have been able to deal with that.

 

“By the way,” the stranger came closer, gave a little smile that had Jinwoo feel suddenly warm and happy, and gave a nod. “My name is Seungyoon. My family name doesn’t really matter anymore, I am who I am now.” That seemed fair enough. Jinwoo returned the nod with a little bow and smiled back. “Jinwoo. I’m K--- Just Jinwoo.” This seemed to amuse Seungyoon, and he gave a little chuckle.

 

“Just Jinwoo? Alright then. It’s nice, err…. I mean, it shouldn’t be nice to meet you like this, but can I say it is?”

 

“Oh, but it is nice! Really nice! I would be a goner if you hadn’t been here!”

 

“You mean you’d die twice?” Once again Seungyoon chuckled and Jinwoo was sure he would have blushed if blood hadn’t already stopped being pumped around in his veins. Dang it, he’d have to work on his wording from now on. He would also have to work on keeping himself calm, because every time Seungyoon smiled at him he felt like currents of power were rushing through him and a strong need to go hide somewhere. Not because he was scared, but…. Because of this new companion of his. Maybe if they were together, after life really wouldn’t be that bad after all?


End file.
